Marketing Assessment & Strategy Report
Traveler intelligence nobody else has. A story nobody else can tell. And a market that's never heard it.
The deepest traveler intelligence in the industry — and almost nobody knows it.
MMGY occupies a unique position in the travel marketing landscape. Through 34 years of proprietary research, an integrated model that spans destinations, hospitality brands, cruise lines, and airlines, and a global team of 600+ specialists, MMGY sees the traveler from every angle of the transaction — the destination trying to attract them, the hotel trying to book them, the cruise line trying to convert them. No other agency in the competitive set has this vantage point.
Yet this advantage is largely invisible in the market. The current mmgy.com positions the agency around an identity statement — "We are travel" — rather than around the specific, defensible value that would compel a CMO to choose MMGY over the alternatives. The research capabilities that represent MMGY's strongest differentiator live on a separate domain. The performance marketing evolution that would resonate with private-sector buyers isn't reflected anywhere on the site. And the messaging is organized around MMGY's internal structure — departments and disciplines — rather than around the problems prospects are trying to solve.
The competitive landscape is shifting. Miles Partnership recently invested in Downs & St. Germain Research to build the kind of research credibility MMGY already has. Shipyard acquired Fahlgren Mortine and TURNER — assembling an integrated model covering creative, media, PR, and tourism — and invested in a GEO optimization company to strengthen AI discoverability. Agencies that were once in separate lanes are converging on MMGY's territory, while MMGY's own positioning doesn't yet articulate why it belongs at the center.
Meanwhile, the way buyers find and evaluate agencies has fundamentally shifted — and MMGY's visibility in the channels that now drive shortlist decisions has significant gaps that need to be addressed.
The opportunity is significant. There is a positioning territory at the intersection of deep travel category expertise and modern, performance-driven marketing thinking that nobody in the competitive set currently owns. The DMO specialists are staying in their lane. The broader creative agencies have energy and performance credibility but lack MMGY's depth of traveler intelligence. The white space sits exactly where MMGY's capabilities live — but claiming it requires a positioning, messaging, and channel strategy that matches the ambition.
The Core OpportunityMMGY is positioned as a travel marketing agency when it should be positioned as the definitive source of traveler intelligence — and the integrated partner that turns that intelligence into growth. This pivot opens the door to the private-sector CMOs the firm wants to attract while reinforcing credibility with the DMO clients who already know MMGY's value. The intelligence is there. The track record is there. The market just can't see it yet.
The recommended strategy centers on four pivots.
Positioning
From "We are travel" to the agency that understands the traveler from every side of the transaction. This isn't a tagline exercise — it's a strategic repositioning grounded in a genuine competitive advantage that requires a dedicated workshop to develop properly.
Messaging
From broad industry commentary to a focused narrative anchored in four messaging pillars: We See the Whole Traveler, We See Both Sides of the Booking, Complexity Is Our Arena, and The Future of Travel Discovery.
Channels
From a collection of well-executed but disconnected activities to a connected system. Double down on LinkedIn with Thought Leader Ads, build a conference-to-content engine, launch a video/podcast program, and invest in AEO/GEO readiness.
Website
From an 8-year-old site that undersells the business to a prospect experience engineered to qualify and convert the right buyers before the first conversation ever happens. The website rebuild is the foundational investment that everything else builds on.
Everyone claims travel. Nobody owns traveler intelligence.
The competitive landscape includes agencies operating at three distinct levels: destination marketing specialists who compete with MMGY on traditional DMO business, broader independent agencies who compete on creative reputation and scale, and niche specialists in PR, research, and hospitality who compete on specific disciplines. We analyzed seven representative firms across the first two tiers, where the positioning and messaging battles most directly affect MMGY's growth objectives.
A pattern emerges quickly: "travel-exclusive" and "integrated" are table stakes in this market, not differentiators. Every direct competitor leads with some variation of the same claim. The question isn't who specializes in travel — they all do. The question is who articulates a specific, defensible reason to choose them over the others. That's where the opportunity opens for MMGY.
Miles positions as the trusted strategic consultancy for destinations. Their tagline — "We Inspire Travel" — and their messaging center on enriching lives through travel and strengthening communities. With 150+ destination clients, 485 employees, and approximately $120M in revenue, Miles is MMGY's closest structural comparable in the DMO space. Their messaging is warm, community-oriented, and mission-driven. Where Miles has recently made a strategic move is in research: their January 2026 investment in Downs & St. Germain Research, a firm with 40+ years of tourism research history, formalizes a decade-long collaboration and signals an explicit play to build research-backed marketing credibility. What Miles doesn't do: they don't meaningfully speak to private-sector travel brands, their messaging leans traditional, and their site doesn't reflect any performance marketing sophistication.
Madden positions as the scrappy, community-first destination partner. Founded in 1982, Madden leads with personality and approachability. They claim to have worked with 400+ DMOs and recently launched Voyage, a suite of data analytics service lines covering audience insights, PR measurement, campaign performance, and visitor trends. At approximately 160 employees, Madden is smaller than both MMGY and Miles, and they compete most aggressively on price. Their positioning is almost entirely DMO-focused. The Voyage data play is worth watching, but it's a product suite rather than a foundational research capability.
BVK positions around a proprietary methodology: values-based brand positioning. This is the most intellectually differentiated positioning in the competitive set. BVK's argument is that brands built around a core human value outperform those built around features, and they back this with research grounded in neuroscience and consumer behavior. Their proprietary Destination Assessment study and consistent thought leadership through their blog ("The Current") reinforce this methodology at every touchpoint. BVK is smaller than MMGY, but their content strategy demonstrates something MMGY's doesn't: every piece builds toward the same thesis. A prospect who reads three BVK blog posts comes away understanding what makes BVK different. That cumulative narrative effect is what MMGY's content currently lacks.
Love positions as the full-service agency with deep tourism credentials. Based in Salt Lake City with approximately 60 employees and $60M+ in billings, Love works across tourism, biotech/health, dining/entertainment, and cause marketing. Their tourism portfolio is strong — Utah Office of Tourism, Virginia Tourism Corporation, Travel South Dakota. Love's positioning is more generalist than the other DMO-focused agencies; they're a regional full-service shop that happens to have built notable tourism expertise. They compete with MMGY when briefs favor personal attention and local-market knowledge over global scale.
Shipyard positions around "Engineering Brand Love" — a compelling marriage of creative ambition and performance accountability. This is the competitor MMGY should be watching most closely. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Shipyard has grown aggressively through strategic acquisitions. In May 2024, they acquired Fahlgren Mortine (two-time PRSA Mid-Sized Agency of the Year) and its subsidiary TURNER, which specializes in travel, tourism, and active lifestyle marketing. In January 2025, they launched The Shipyard Collective as an integrated operating model. The combined entity represents $350M in billings, 400 professionals, and 10 offices. This is the kind of agency MMGY's team has described losing to on briefs where creative fame dominates the conversation.
BarkleyOKRP positions as the "Big Indie" — scale with soul. The combined agency has approximately 500-1,000 employees, $93M+ in revenue, and a client roster that includes Burger King, Corona Premier, and Planet Fitness. They're a five-time Ad Age A-List honoree. Their "Big Indie" positioning — too big to feel boutique, too independent to feel like a network — occupies similar structural territory to the "valuable middle space" MMGY described in the intake. The difference: BarkleyOKRP is already articulating that position clearly, but without travel category depth behind it. Their middle-space claim is about agency model, not industry expertise.
We also evaluated the niche competitors identified in the intake — Edelman, FINN Partners, Praytell, and others in PR; Longwoods, Tourism Economics, and Future Partners in research; and Tambourine, AKA, and Backbone Media in hotel/hospitality. These firms compete with MMGY on specific service lines but don't meaningfully affect the positioning or messaging strategy. They win or lose individual assignments based on channel-level expertise, not on the kind of integrated positioning story this report addresses.
Key Competitive Findings
"Travel-exclusive" is a commodity claim. Miles, Madden, and MMGY all lead with variations of the same message. A CMO scanning these three sites would struggle to articulate a meaningful difference between them based on positioning alone.
The DMO specialists are staying in their lane. Miles and Madden speak almost entirely to destination marketing organizations. Neither is making a serious play for private-sector CMOs. This creates space for MMGY's growth ambitions.
The upstream agencies are converging. Shipyard's acquisition of Fahlgren Mortine and TURNER gives them integrated travel + creative capabilities. BarkleyOKRP is already claiming the middle space. These agencies are building toward what MMGY already has — from the opposite direction.
Research is becoming a competitive battleground. Miles invested in DSG. Madden launched Voyage. BVK leads with proprietary methodology. The window during which MMGY's research portfolio is an unchallenged differentiator is narrowing.
A positioning story nobody else can tell — that the market can't yet hear.
MMGY's current market positioning centers on an identity claim: "We are travel. Travel changes everything." This language appears on the homepage, the about page, and across social channels. It communicates passion for the industry and signals category commitment. What it doesn't communicate is why a CMO evaluating three travel marketing agencies should choose MMGY over the other two.
The competitive analysis makes this tension concrete. Miles Partnership says it's "focused exclusively on travel and tourism." Madden says it "connects people to places." MMGY says "we are travel." These statements are functionally interchangeable. A prospect reading all three sites in sequence would come away knowing that all three agencies love travel. They would not come away with a clear understanding of what makes any one of them the better choice for their specific problem.
This isn't a reflection of MMGY's actual value — it's a reflection of how that value is currently packaged.
What the site communicates today
The homepage presents a rotating carousel of work samples and insights over the headline "We Are Travel / Travel Changes Everything." There is no positioning statement, no articulation of how MMGY helps clients, no proof of outcomes, and no clear next step for a prospect.
The about page leads with purpose: "Travel opens doors and hearts. It transforms what we think to become what we've learned." The copy is warm and genuine, and the sentiment clearly reflects how the team feels about the work. But for a CMO operating in a turbulent travel environment with intense scrutiny around marketing ROI, this messaging creates a mismatch. It signals passion but not the strategic rigor and performance accountability that buyer is evaluating agencies on.
The services page organizes capabilities by internal discipline: Data & Insights, Marketing & Paid Media, PR & Representation. Each is described in terms of what the department does rather than what outcome it produces.
Across every page, the messaging is oriented inward. It tells the visitor what MMGY believes about travel as a concept. It doesn't tell them what happens when they hire MMGY.
Three differentiators — buried or absent
Through the intake, discovery session, and our analysis of MMGY's capabilities, three genuinely differentiated assets emerged. None of them are visible to a first-time visitor on mmgy.com.
MMGY Travel Intelligence represents 34 years of proprietary traveler data — the longest-running and broadest research portfolio in the travel marketing industry. The Portrait of American Travelers, now in its 34th year, is widely regarded as a leading barometer of travel trends. The accessible travel study, the neurodiverse families study, the Portrait of Indian International Travelers — these are original, substantive contributions that competitors are only beginning to try to replicate. On the website, this entire asset lives behind a single navigation link to a separate domain (mmgyintel.com). It's treated as a product line rather than as the strategic backbone that makes all of MMGY's work smarter. Miles just invested in a research firm to try to build what MMGY already has. This advantage should be front and center, not siloed on a subdomain.
How the research portfolio gets integrated into the mmgy.com experience — whether through featured research on key pages, research-backed proof points woven into the service narrative, or a dedicated section that connects the intelligence to the work — is a question we'd help guide during the website engagement. The important thing is that this asset stops living in isolation and starts doing strategic work on the flagship site.
MMGY works with DMOs, private-sector brands, cruise lines, airlines, and hospitality groups — and synthesizes learnings across all of them. When MMGY develops a media strategy for a destination, it's informed by what they've learned about traveler behavior from the hotel brands competing for those same travelers. This cross-pollination of intelligence across the full travel ecosystem is something no other agency in the competitive set can credibly claim. Miles sees the DMO side. Tambourine sees the hotel side. Shipyard sees the brand campaign side. MMGY sees the whole picture. But the site doesn't communicate this at all.
MMGY's teams have leveled up significantly in delivering measurable revenue impact — work for brands like Windstar Cruises, Six Flags, Choice Hotels, and Hyatt that equates directly to sales and bookings. This is exactly the story that would resonate with the private-sector CMO that MMGY wants to attract, and it's the story that would differentiate MMGY from the DMO-specialist competitors who lean more traditional. The site doesn't reflect any of this capability.
Positioning gaps that limit market visibility
The strongest differentiator is invisible. MMGY's 34-year research portfolio — the deepest in the industry — lives on a separate domain and isn't connected to the core agency value proposition on mmgy.com.
The site speaks to MMGY's identity, not the client's problem. "We are travel" communicates passion but doesn't address what a prospect gains by hiring MMGY. Compare to Shipyard's outcome-driven positioning or BVK's values-based methodology — both are promises of outcome, not statements of identity.
The performance story is missing entirely. The capabilities that would most resonate with private-sector CMOs — measurable revenue impact, data-driven media strategy, full-funnel accountability — aren't reflected on the site.
The messaging mismatch with the target buyer. The "Our Why" framing leads with purpose and philosophy. The CMO under pressure to prove ROI needs to see strategic rigor and performance credibility before they connect with mission.
The competitive window is narrowing. Miles is investing in research. Shipyard is investing in integration and AI. BarkleyOKRP is already claiming the middle space. The positioning territory is available today — but the longer MMGY waits, the harder it becomes to own.
This is worth noting as context, not as a recommendation we're owning — we understand this work is being managed internally. MMGY's brand architecture is still in transition, and that transition creates friction for prospects trying to understand what MMGY is. The footer on mmgy.com reads "MMGY Advertising (an MMGY Global company)." The LinkedIn handle is @MMGYglobal. Travel Intelligence lives on mmgyintel.com.
For a prospect encountering MMGY for the first time, the site introduces complexity before it resolves it. This makes the positioning work on mmgy.com even more important — when the architecture is complex, the flagship brand needs to do more heavy lifting on clarity.
If at any point you'd like outside support in resolving these brand architecture challenges, this is work Newfangled is well-equipped to help with.
The opportunity
The gap between MMGY's actual competitive advantage and how it's currently positioned in the market is significant enough that it warrants a dedicated positioning engagement. A positioning workshop would give the team the space to develop an articulation that captures the ecosystem value, resonates with both DMO and private-sector audiences, and holds up against the strongest competitors in the landscape.
The case for that workshop isn't "your positioning is broken." It's that you have a positioning story nobody else in the market can tell, and the current articulation isn't telling it.
The competitive landscape is moving in a direction that makes this urgent. Competitors are investing to close the gaps MMGY already fills — Miles in research, Shipyard in integration and AI discoverability. The DMO-only agencies are staying in their lane, which creates room for MMGY's private-sector ambitions. And the buyer journey research confirms that prospects are forming their shortlists earlier and through channels where positioning clarity matters more than ever.
The positioning territory we see for MMGY is not about the middle of a size spectrum. It's about being at the center of an ecosystem. MMGY sees the traveler from every angle of the transaction — through decades of proprietary research, through work spanning destinations and brands, through global teams that understand how travelers think and decide at every stage. That intelligence is the connective tissue that makes everything else MMGY does more effective. It serves the DMO client who needs to attract travelers and the private-sector brand that needs to convert them. It's the common foundation that speaks to both audiences from a single, credible, defensible position.
Getting from "we are travel" to an articulation of that specific value — in language that resonates with both a DMO director and a cruise line CMO, that holds up against the strongest competitors in the landscape, and that gives the sales team a sharper edge in every conversation — that's a workshop, not a tagline exercise. The raw material is there. It needs to be shaped.
Two buyers, one evaluation framework — and a journey that's moved beyond the website.
DMO leaders who represent the established base of the business, and private-sector CMOs who represent the growth opportunity. These buyers enter the evaluation process through different doors — one through RFP cycles and industry relationships, the other through independent research and peer networks. But they evaluate agencies against the same fundamental criteria: category expertise, proof of results, strategic depth, and cultural fit.
The more pressing question isn't who these buyers are. MMGY already knows its audience well. The question is whether MMGY is showing up in the places and ways these buyers now use to build their shortlists — because that process has changed significantly.
The buyer journey has a new stage
Current research paints a consistent picture of how B2B buyers — including CMOs evaluating agency partners — now make decisions.
95% of deals are won by a vendor already on the buyer's day-one shortlist. The first vendor a buyer contacts wins roughly 80% of the time. By the time a prospect reaches out to MMGY's team, the decision is largely already made. The shortlist was assembled through independent research, not through sales conversations.
Buying cycles have compressed — from 11.3 months on average in 2024 to 10.1 months in 2025 — driven by economic uncertainty pushing buyers to lock in commitments before potential budget cuts, and by the need to evaluate AI capabilities earlier. But this earlier contact doesn't mean buyers are less decided. 94% still have their shortlist ranked before that first conversation. The window to influence the shortlist has actually gotten narrower, not wider.
Buying committees have expanded. The average B2B purchase now involves 10-13 stakeholders across multiple departments. For agency selection in travel, this likely means the CMO initiates the search, but procurement, finance, and executive leadership — especially in PE-owned organizations — weigh in on the final decision. The website needs to serve all of these readers, not just the marketing lead.
And the path to the shortlist has a new first stage: AI-assisted discovery. 94% of B2B buyers now use tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini during their evaluation process. 60% use these tools to build initial vendor lists. They query the LLM first, validate through Google, evaluate through websites and content, then build the shortlist. MMGY needs to show up credibly at every stage of this path.
MMGY's AI visibility has room to grow
The GEO Visibility Audit we conducted tested 150 queries across ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.
MMGY scored 40 out of 100 overall, with a 47.3% mention rate across 150 queries and a 39.4% win rate when mentioned — ranking first 28 times. The brand performs strongly on vendor-selection queries (80% mention rate) and partnership queries (70%), with ChatGPT driving the strongest performance at 60%. But critical gaps exist: problem-solving queries returned 0% mentions, best-practices content registers at only 23.3%, and MMGY received zero citations across all platforms. AI systems know who MMGY is. They don't know what MMGY knows.
The category breakdown reveals where the gap is widest. In vendor-selection queries ("best travel marketing agencies for tourism boards"), MMGY appeared 33% of the time. In problem-solving queries ("how to create effective destination marketing campaigns," "how to measure ROI for hospitality marketing"), the mention rate was 0%. This maps directly to a content gap: MMGY has deep expertise in solving these exact problems but hasn't published content structured in the way AI systems surface and cite.
When MMGY does appear, it performs well — earning the top ranking 39.4% of the time and ranking first in 28 instances. The issue isn't reputation. It's the type of content AI can find. View the full GEO Visibility Audit →
DMO leaders — executive directors, CMOs, marketing directors at destination marketing organizations — represent MMGY's established base. These buyers typically enter through RFP cycles: structured, procurement-driven, often 3-5 year contract reviews with optional extensions. The sales cycle is long, the evaluation process is formal, and the relationship tenure can extend 10-15 years.
For this audience, MMGY's brand recognition, conference presence, and industry relationships do much of the shortlist work. The website functions less as a discovery mechanism and more as a validation tool during the RFP evaluation.
What They Care About
- Depth of category understanding, research credibility, integrated capabilities that simplify their vendor relationships, proven track record with comparable destinations, community impact and responsible tourism perspective
Where They're Found
- Industry conferences (Destinations International
- TTRA
- ESTO), trade publications, peer networks
- RFP databases, and increasingly
- AI-assisted research during evaluation
The website doesn't showcase the research advantage prominently enough. Case studies lean on creative output rather than measured destination impact. The content strategy doesn't build toward a cumulative narrative that would help a DMO committee member advocate for MMGY internally during an RFP process.
This is the growth audience — CMOs and senior marketing leaders at hotel chains, cruise lines, airlines, entertainment companies, and other private-sector travel brands. These buyers are less likely to enter through structured RFP cycles. More often, they search when they have a specific problem — a brand repositioning, a performance gap, a competitive threat, a new market entry.
For this audience, the website is the primary discovery mechanism. They're Googling, asking peers, checking LinkedIn, querying ChatGPT. They're evaluating agencies based on whether the site signals understanding of their world — a world of revenue targets, board-level ROI scrutiny, competitive pressure, and the need to connect brand investment to bookings. This is the growth audience identified during discovery, and it's the audience mmgy.com currently doesn't speak to.
What They Care About
- Measurable performance and revenue impact, ability to connect brand marketing to demand generation, sophisticated data and analytics capabilities, speed to value, proof of results with comparable private-sector brands
Where They're Found
- LinkedIn (both organic content and paid)
- Google search
- AI-assisted discovery, peer referrals, industry events (Cannes Lions
- Skift
- PhocusWright), and increasingly through content that demonstrates strategic thinking rather than just category knowledge
The website doesn't reflect any of this. Case studies lean DMO. The messaging leads with purpose and philosophy rather than performance credibility. The services page describes disciplines rather than outcomes. A hotel chain CMO visiting mmgy.com today would see an agency that appears to be built for destinations, not for their business. The AI visibility gap compounds this — if a private-sector CMO asks ChatGPT for "best hospitality marketing agencies," MMGY doesn't appear.
The common thread
Both audiences ultimately form their shortlists based on the same signals: does this agency understand my category, can they prove they've delivered results for organizations like mine, and do they have a point of view that makes me think they'll push my thinking forward? The messaging framework doesn't need to be split into two separate stories. It needs to be structured so that both audiences can find themselves in it quickly and see proof that matters to their specific context.
The ecosystem positioning we identified in the competitive analysis serves both. The DMO leader sees an agency with unmatched traveler intelligence that will make their marketing more precise. The private-sector CMO sees an agency that understands demand from every angle and can connect brand investment to revenue. Same foundation, different applications.
Sources6sense 2025 B2B Buyer Experience Report Google October 2025 B2B Buyer Journey Research Forrester State of Business Buying Newfangled GEO Visibility Audit for MMGY (April 2026)
The Shortlist Problem
The shortlist is formed before the first call. 95% of B2B deals are won by a vendor already on the buyer's day-one shortlist. 80% are won by the pre-contact favorite. If MMGY isn't on the list before the prospect picks up the phone, the pitch rarely matters.
AI is now the first stage of discovery. 94% of B2B buyers use LLMs during evaluation. 60% use them to build initial vendor lists. MMGY's GEO visibility score: 40/100. Strong on vendor-selection queries (80%), but 0% on problem-solving queries. AI knows who MMGY is — it doesn't know what MMGY knows.
The website must serve a committee, not just a CMO. B2B buying decisions now involve 10-13 stakeholders. The site needs to answer different questions for different readers — strategic depth for the marketing lead, credentials and scale for procurement, clarity and proof for the executive who needs to sign off.
The gap between audiences is a content gap, not a positioning gap. DMO buyers and private-sector CMOs evaluate agencies on the same criteria. MMGY's site does a reasonable job serving the DMO audience, but the private-sector gap is more acute — those buyers rely more heavily on the website as a discovery and qualification tool.
Every piece of content should build the case for choosing you.
MMGY produces a significant volume of thought leadership — 100+ articles on the insights blog, a bi-weekly newsletter with strong engagement, 38 hours of conference speaking in 2025, and earned media impressions exceeding 2 billion for the second consecutive year. The output is impressive. The question is whether it's building toward anything.
Right now, it isn't. Read across the full body of content on mmgy.com and you'll find culinary tourism trends, media landscape shifts, accessible travel research, crisis communications playbooks, cannabis culture and travel, TikTok ban analysis, and FIFA World Cup destination strategy. Each piece is substantive on its own. But taken together, they read like a trade publication covering the industry rather than an agency with a distinctive point of view on it.
This is the difference between content that demonstrates knowledge and content that builds positioning. Compare MMGY's approach to BVK's: every piece of BVK content reinforces the same thesis — that brands built around a core human value outperform. Their blog post about Wyoming tourism is really about values-based positioning applied to a destination. Their post about Gen Z travelers is about how values shift generationally. Six months of BVK's content, read together, trains you to think in their framework. You start to associate BVK with a specific way of seeing the world. After reading their content, a prospect could articulate what makes BVK different.
After reading six months of MMGY's content, a prospect would come away knowing MMGY is smart and active in the travel space. They would not come away with a clear sense of what MMGY believes about the industry that's different from what Miles or Madden or anyone else believes.
The same pattern holds on social media. LinkedIn is MMGY's strongest channel — engagement rates consistently outperform industry benchmarks, with peaks of 6.4% against a 3.9% travel industry average. The content that performs best is exactly right: original research, data-backed industry commentary, and leadership visibility. But the wins are isolated spikes rather than chapters in a sustained narrative. The social strategy is executing well tactically. It isn't building toward anything cumulatively.
The fix isn't to produce less. It's to give everything MMGY produces a strategic home within a messaging framework that, over time, teaches the market what makes MMGY different.
What the messaging gets right today
The research content has genuine substance. The Portrait of American Travelers, the accessible travel study, the neurodiverse families research — these are original contributions that demonstrate depth competitors can't easily replicate. When this content reaches the right audience, it builds real credibility.
The Quick Takes on Travel newsletter has found a format that works. Open rates in the 31-43% range, strong click-through on data-driven content, and a LinkedIn newsletter companion that's building a subscriber base.
The conference presence and earned media generate significant awareness. The team is respected on industry stages and regularly quoted in major publications. This isn't something you build from scratch — it's an asset that took years to establish.
The challenge is that none of these strengths are connected to a positioning narrative. They're orbiting the brand without reinforcing a specific, differentiated claim.
What's missing from today's messaging
The site speaks to MMGY's identity, not the client's problem. Every major page leads with what MMGY believes about travel rather than what a prospect gains by hiring MMGY. "We are travel" is an identity claim. "Travel changes everything" is a philosophy. Neither tells a CMO under pressure how MMGY will help them grow revenue, differentiate their brand, or navigate a turbulent market.
The content taxonomy reflects internal structure, not prospect needs. The services page organizes by department: Data & Insights, Marketing & Paid Media, PR & Representation. The blog filters by internal category: MICE, Integrated Marketing, Media and Analytics, International Marketing. A prospect doesn't think "I need Integrated Marketing." They think "I need to grow bookings" or "I need to differentiate my destination" or "I need to prove ROI to my board." The entire information architecture is oriented around how MMGY is organized rather than around the problems MMGY solves. This affects both the website experience and AI discoverability — the GEO audit's 0% mention rate in problem-solving queries maps directly to this gap.
The private-sector story is invisible. The case studies lean heavily DMO. The language leans destination. The performance marketing capabilities that would matter most to a hotel chain CMO or cruise line VP — measurable revenue impact, full-funnel accountability, data-driven media strategy — aren't reflected on the site or in the content strategy.
Four messaging pillars
The following messaging areas of focus are designed to anchor MMGY's content strategy going forward. Each one sits at the intersection of MMGY's genuine expertise, the target buyers' needs and pressures, and the competitive white space identified in the landscape analysis.
These pillars are not taglines, headlines, or external-facing language. They're internal organizing principles — shared vocabulary that guides content ideation, editorial planning, and campaign development across the MMGY marketing team. When someone is developing a blog post, planning a conference talk, writing a LinkedIn post, or briefing a case study, these pillars answer the question: what is this piece of content building toward? They ensure that everything MMGY publishes contributes to a cumulative positioning narrative rather than standing alone as isolated industry commentary.
Pillar 1: We See the Whole Traveler
Nobody knows travelers like MMGY does — and nobody else can. While competitors see the traveler from one angle — the DMO side, the hotel side, the campaign side — MMGY sees the whole traveler. Through 34 years of proprietary research, through work spanning destinations and private-sector brands, through global teams that understand how travelers think and decide at every stage of the journey. That intelligence is the connective tissue that makes everything else MMGY does smarter, and it's the one advantage competitors can't acquire or replicate. This is the anchor pillar. A DMO leader hears: your marketing will be informed by the most comprehensive traveler data in the industry. A private-sector CMO hears: we understand demand patterns that your current agency doesn't have access to.
An analysis using Portrait of American Travelers data on how traveler motivations differ by generation — and what that means for destination and brand strategy in 2027. Original data, actionable for both audiences, and impossible for competitors without the research to replicate.
A deep dive into the accessible travel market opportunity, framed not as a social responsibility piece but as a commercial insight: this is a $58B segment that most brands are ignoring because they don't have the data to understand it. MMGY does.
A methodology piece showing how MMGY's traveler segmentation approach works — how the research informs targeting, creative strategy, and media allocation. This is the "how we think" content that builds trust with sophisticated CMOs.
Pillar 2: We See Both Sides of the Booking
DMOs create demand for destinations but can't measure where the bookings land. Private-sector brands capture bookings but can't create new demand on their own. MMGY works both sides of this equation — and through decades of research and experience across the full travel ecosystem, understands the complete journey from desire to booking. That dual perspective makes MMGY's work smarter on both sides. The DMO client gets an agency that understands how destination marketing translates into commercial outcomes. The private-sector CMO gets an agency that understands where demand originates and how to influence it before it reaches the performance funnel.
A case study on a private-sector engagement like Windstar Cruises, framed not just as creative work but as a story about connecting brand investment to measurable booking revenue — showing the full path from awareness to conversion.
A thought leadership piece on incrementality in travel marketing: how to find and convert travelers who weren't already planning to visit, as opposed to just capturing existing demand through performance channels.
An analysis using MMGY research showing how traveler intent forms at the destination level and converts at the brand level — mapping the psychological journey from "I want to go to Colorado" to "I'm booking this specific resort."
Pillar 3: Complexity Is Our Arena
Travel marketing is getting more complex — fragmented channels, AI disruption, compressed buying cycles, expanding stakeholder groups, global reach requirements, regulatory and geopolitical volatility. Most agencies position complexity as a problem they'll simplify. MMGY can position it as a terrain they're uniquely equipped to navigate because of their scale, integration, and global presence. This reframes "we're big and integrated" from a structural description into a value proposition. The messaging claim: if your marketing challenge is straightforward, plenty of agencies can handle it. If it's complex — multi-market, multi-stakeholder, multi-channel, with real accountability on the line — you need a partner built for that complexity.
A behind-the-scenes breakdown of a multi-market campaign — showing how MMGY coordinated creative, media, PR, and destination representation across geographies and stakeholder groups.
A thought leadership piece on how geopolitical volatility is reshaping travel marketing strategy — drawing on MMGY's global perspective and real-time experience helping clients adapt.
A point-of-view piece on why integrated, discipline-led teams deliver better outcomes than the traditional geographic-silo agency structure.
Pillar 4: The Future of Travel Discovery
AI is reshaping how travelers find destinations and how CMOs find agencies. MMGY is already seeing ChatGPT referrals in inbound leads. They have AI-powered tools like Trailblazer (evaluating creative messaging for conformity vs. novelty) and EurekA! (AI-powered access to proprietary research). This pillar positions MMGY as the agency that isn't just adapting to AI — they're helping clients navigate the shift from traditional discoverability to AI-mediated discovery. The messaging claim: the rules of how travelers find you are changing. MMGY is building the playbook.
An original research piece on how LLMs are reshaping hotel and destination search behavior — using MMGY's data to show how travelers are using AI tools to plan trips. Nobody in the competitive set is producing this research.
A practical guide to structuring destination or hospitality content for AI discoverability — the travel-specific version of AEO/GEO best practices. This is exactly the kind of problem-solving content that would address the 0% GEO mention rate.
A piece showcasing Trailblazer's approach to evaluating creative against the "sea of sameness" — positioning MMGY as an agency building proprietary AI tools, not just using off-the-shelf ones.
How the pillars work in practice
These aren't content categories — they're lenses. A blog post about accessible travel isn't just a standalone topic. Under this framework, it lives under We See the Whole Traveler because it demonstrates how deep research reveals underserved market segments. A case study about Windstar Cruises doesn't just showcase creative work. It lives under We See Both Sides of the Booking because it shows how MMGY drove measurable revenue outcomes. A recap of a multi-market campaign lives under Complexity Is Our Arena. An analysis of ChatGPT's influence on hotel bookings lives under The Future of Travel Discovery.
Over time, this creates the cumulative effect that's currently missing. A prospect who follows MMGY's LinkedIn for six months, reads the newsletter, and attends a conference session wouldn't just know MMGY is smart. They'd be able to articulate what makes MMGY different — and that articulation would map to the positioning territory we've identified.
Every channel works. None of them talk to each other.
MMGY's marketing channels are individually healthy. LinkedIn engagement outperforms industry benchmarks. The conference presence is arguably the strongest in the travel marketing space. The Quick Takes newsletter has solid metrics. Earned media generates significant awareness. The individual parts are working.
The problem is that they aren't connected. A keynote at Mojo Summit generates energy in the room but doesn't systematically produce content that feeds LinkedIn, the newsletter, the blog, and AI discoverability for months afterward. A strong LinkedIn post gets engagement but doesn't drive newsletter subscriptions. Each channel operates on its own cycle, producing its own results, without a system connecting them into a compounding whole.
The channel strategy we're recommending doesn't require MMGY to abandon what's working. It requires building the connective tissue between channels so that effort invested in one produces returns across all of them.
Current channel performance
MMGY's most powerful channel. 38 hours of thought leadership on industry stages in 2025, up 65% from 2024. Nine hosted events including Mojo Americas and Cannes Lions. This is where MMGY's relationship advantage and category credibility are most visible. The gap: these moments aren't being systematically captured and redistributed. The energy of a keynote dissipates once the conference ends.
The growth engine, performing above benchmarks. Engagement rates peaked at 6.4% against a 3.9% travel industry average. Follower growth from approximately 29,000 to 34,000 over 2025 is strong and organic. The Quick Takes LinkedIn newsletter is building a subscriber base. The gap: no paid amplification strategy behind it, and the content isn't organized around the messaging pillars that would make the engagement build cumulatively.
Solid engagement, small list. Open rates started strong at 43% in January 2025, settled into the mid-30s through spring, bounced back in July (38.7%) and August (36.6%) when AI and research topics resonated, then found a natural floor in the low 30s through fall. Even the lower end outperforms most B2B email benchmarks. The gap: the list is estimated at 5,000-6,000 subscribers, which is undersized for a firm targeting $10-12M in annual new business.
High volume, unclear conversion. 2B+ impressions for the second consecutive year. Leadership regularly quoted in Ad Age, USA Today, Yahoo, MSN. The gap: no visible mechanism connecting earned media moments to the content system. A press hit generates awareness but doesn't feed the newsletter, the blog, the LinkedIn strategy, or the AI discoverability engine.
Virtually non-existent. LinkedIn Ads at under $2,000 per month, managed internally. At this investment level, MMGY can likely only run one campaign at a time — enough to generate impressions but too little to test which executives, messages, and audience segments produce the best results. The budget funds presence, not learning.
The highest-leverage channel, currently the weakest. The site is 8+ years old, difficult to update, and doesn't serve either the DMO or private-sector buyer journey. Given that 95% of B2B deals are won by a vendor on the buyer's day-one shortlist — a shortlist formed entirely through independent research — the website is the channel with the most influence on pipeline outcomes. It's also the one most in need of a rebuild.
An untapped asset — and wide-open competitive white space. YouTube is the world's second-largest search engine, with 2.7 billion monthly users. MMGY has a full in-house studio with a director, editor, and producer. They have a YouTube channel (243 subscribers, largely dormant). Not a single competitor in MMGY's space — Miles, Madden, BVK, Shipyard — is using YouTube for B2B thought leadership. The white space is real, the production infrastructure exists, and the platform feeds both LinkedIn content and AI discoverability.
A critical opportunity. The GEO audit scored 40/100 — with strong vendor-selection performance (80% mention rate) but complete absence on problem-solving queries (0%) and weak best-practices visibility (23.3%). AI systems know MMGY exists but can't articulate what makes them different, because the content isn't structured around the expertise that sets them apart. Schema markup — a standardized code structure that helps AI systems understand page content — is minimal on the current site. With 94% of B2B buyers now using LLMs during evaluation, investing in problem-solving content and structured data will close this gap.
Recommended channel strategy
1. Build the conference-to-content engine
Every keynote, panel, and Mojo Summit session should systematically generate 6–8 pieces of derivative content. This doesn't require new channels — it requires a production process that treats every conference appearance as a content shoot, not just a speaking engagement.
Content types per appearance
- Short video clips for LinkedIn and YouTube
- Executive LinkedIn posts expanding the thesis
- Blog article developed from the talk
- Newsletter feature with key takeaways
- Structured FAQ content for AI discoverability
- Pull quotes for social and email
Production principles
- Brief a content team before every appearance
- Film every session — even panels
- Have a designated social capture role on-site
- Set a 72-hour post-event publishing window
- Repurpose into at least 3 distinct formats
- Tag and archive for GEO content strategy
2. Invest in LinkedIn — organic and paid
LinkedIn is already MMGY's strongest digital channel. The opportunity is to organize content around the four messaging pillars so it builds cumulatively — and layer in paid amplification once a website worth driving traffic to is in place.
Organic strategy
- Organize posts around the four messaging pillars
- Prioritize original research, data, and leadership voice
- Grow LinkedIn newsletter subscriber base
- Target consistent cadence over volume
- 4–5 executives posting regularly, not just the brand page
Paid amplification (phase 1: $5K/mo)
- LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads — 1.7× higher CTR than standard
- Test executives, messages, and audience segments
- Phase 2: scale what works, add programmatic retargeting
- Don't scale until the website can convert the traffic
- Stay visible throughout the long B2B evaluation window
3. Launch a video/podcast program
None of the major agencies in MMGY's competitive set — Miles, Madden, BVK, or Shipyard — produce an executive-level video podcast. A biweekly videocast would fill that white space and generate multi-format content from a single production session.
Format & production
- Biweekly filmed conversations — audio and video
- Published to YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify
- 4–6 short clips per episode for LinkedIn
- Blog summary post + newsletter feature per episode
- Leverage MMGY's in-house studio (director, editor, producer)
- Low marginal cost given existing infrastructure
Guest strategy
- Account-based: invite target-account executives as guests
- DMO executive directors and private-sector CMOs
- Industry analysts, researchers, and partners
- Turn the conversation into a relationship-building tool
- Follow up with personalized episode summary
- Cross-promote through guest's own channels
4. Activate YouTube
YouTube is the world's second-largest search engine, with 2.7 billion monthly users — and not a single competitor in MMGY's space is using it for B2B thought leadership. Miles, Madden, BVK, and Shipyard all have dormant or nonexistent YouTube channels. MMGY already has the in-house production infrastructure and a channel (currently at 243 subscribers). The videocast becomes the anchor content; conference clips and client interviews extend the library.
Content strategy
- Biweekly videocast episodes as the primary YouTube content
- Conference keynote clips and client interview segments
- Short-form clips repurposed as YouTube Shorts for discovery
- Structured video descriptions with timestamps for AI indexing
- Playlists organized by messaging pillar
Why it matters
- First-mover advantage — no competitor occupies this space
- Video content feeds AI discoverability alongside traditional search
- YouTube videos embed naturally into blog posts and LinkedIn
- Future opportunity: YouTube pre-roll ads retargeting mmgy.com visitors
- Builds a content library that compounds over time
5. Grow the email list
Quick Takes has strong engagement metrics — open rates in the 31–43% range — but the list is estimated at 5,000–6,000 subscribers. That's undersized for a firm targeting $10–12M in new annual business. Target: 12,000–15,000 qualified subscribers within 12 months.
Growth tactics
- Gated research content as primary lead magnet (Portrait of American Travelers)
- Conference capture — QR codes, badge scan, live signup
- LinkedIn-to-email conversion via newsletter and lead gen forms
- Website optimization — newsletter CTA on high-traffic pages
- Referral incentives for existing subscribers
List quality principles
- Prioritize opt-in over purchased lists
- 43% open rate on 5K beats 12% on 20K every time
- Segment by DMO vs. private-sector interest
- Suppress disengaged subscribers after 6 months
- Track list growth as a KPI alongside open rates
6. Invest in AEO/GEO readiness
MMGY scored 40/100 on the GEO Visibility Audit — strong on vendor-selection queries but absent on problem-solving and best-practices content. With 94% of B2B buyers now using LLMs during evaluation, the investment in structured, expertise-driven content will expand MMGY's AI footprint from brand recognition to thought leadership authority.
Months 1–3: technical foundation
- Implement Schema.org markup across mmgy.com
- Create structured FAQ architecture targeting problem-solving queries
- Audit and fix thin or unstructured content pages
- Establish baseline GEO monitoring cadence
- Brief web team on AEO content principles
Months 3–12: content authority
- Publish 2–3 authoritative structured guides per month
- Topics: measuring destination marketing ROI, integrated tourism campaigns
- Target: 35–40/100 GEO score by month 6
- Target: 50–60/100 GEO score by month 12
- Newfangled leads implementation as part of engagement
7. Launch quarterly CMO roundtables
A roundtable is a small-group conversation — not a webinar. 8–12 invited CMOs, a focused question tied to a messaging pillar, 60–75 minutes of facilitated discussion. No pitch, no slides. MMGY hosts and participates as equals.
Format & cadence
- 8–12 invited CMOs per session — curated, not open registration
- 60–75 minutes, one focused question as the prompt
- No presentations, no pitches — MMGY facilitates as a peer
- Quarterly cadence, rotating themes by messaging pillar
- Follow up with a personalized summary and handwritten note
Why this works
- Creates direct relationships in a non-sales context
- Positions MMGY as the convener and thought leader
- Generates proprietary insights that fuel content
- Exclusivity builds brand equity and referral potential
- Pipeline impact comes from relationships, not the pitch
Channel Strategy Summary
Keep & Amplify
Conferences (build the content engine around them), LinkedIn organic (organize around pillars), Email (grow the list), PR & earned media (connect to the content system).
Add
LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads ($5K/mo initial), video/podcast program (biweekly, in-house), YouTube as the long-form home, quarterly CMO roundtables. Phase two: programmatic retargeting.
Fix
The website. This is the foundational investment. Until mmgy.com can qualify and convert the right prospects, paid traffic and content strategy are driving people to an experience that doesn't serve them.
Deprioritize
Facebook and X/Twitter to maintenance mode — one cross-posted piece per week, no dedicated strategy. Redirect the hours to LinkedIn, video, and AEO content.
The advantage exists. The window to claim it is narrowing.
This report has documented a consistent finding across every dimension of analysis: MMGY possesses a genuinely differentiated competitive advantage — the deepest traveler intelligence in the industry, built over 34 years, integrated across the full travel ecosystem — and that advantage is largely invisible in the channels and formats where today's buyers form their shortlists.
The competitive landscape is moving. Miles is investing in research credibility. Shipyard is assembling integration and AI capabilities through acquisition. BarkleyOKRP is already claiming the "valuable middle." These agencies are building toward what MMGY already has — but from the opposite direction. The positioning territory at the center of the travel marketing landscape is available today. It won't be available indefinitely.
Meanwhile, the buyer journey has fundamentally shifted.
The website rebuild is the foundational investment. It's where the positioning becomes visible, the messaging becomes tangible, and the channel strategy has somewhere to send traffic. Without it, every other investment underperforms. With it, everything compounds.
Every engagement tier we've outlined on the following page includes the positioning workshop, messaging framework, full website redesign and build, and AEO/GEO technical implementation. These aren't optional add-ons — they're the minimum viable foundation. The tiers differ in how much ongoing strategic partnership, content production, and channel management Newfangled provides beyond that foundation.
The raw material for a market-defining position is already inside MMGY. The research. The ecosystem perspective. The performance evolution. The global team. None of it needs to be invented. It needs to be surfaced, articulated, and made visible in the places where buyers are making decisions.
That's the work ahead. The next page outlines how we propose to do it together.
The Four Pivots
From "we are travel" to the agency that understands the traveler from every side of the transaction. Developed through a dedicated positioning workshop.
From broad industry commentary to a focused narrative anchored in four pillars that build cumulative positioning over time.
From disconnected channel activity to a connected system — conference-to-content engine, LinkedIn paid amplification, video/podcast, email list growth, AEO/GEO investment.
From an 8-year-old site that undersells the business to a prospect experience engineered for the modern buyer journey.
Four ways to work together — all built on the same foundation.
Every tier includes the positioning workshop, messaging framework development, full website redesign and build, and AEO/GEO technical implementation. These represent the foundational investment — the work that must happen regardless of scope. The tiers differ in how much ongoing strategic partnership Newfangled provides beyond that foundation.
All pricing reflects a 9-month engagement following a $10,000 discovery phase (already completed). MMGY's stated budget ceiling is $200,000 total. We recommend an initial paid media budget of $5,000/month across all tiers — enough to run 3-4 LinkedIn Thought Leader Ad campaigns simultaneously and build meaningful performance data.
Tier 1 — Foundation
$12,000/mo × 9 months = $108,000"The foundation is ours. The execution is yours."
What's included: Positioning workshop and messaging framework development. Full website redesign, content development, and build. AEO/GEO technical implementation (Schema markup, structured content architecture). Quarterly strategic advisory sessions.
What MMGY owns: All ongoing content production, social media execution, LinkedIn paid media management, email marketing, conference-to-content capture, and video/podcast production.
Recommended initial paid budget: $5,000/month for LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads and targeted paid amplification.
Best for: An MMGY team that has the internal capacity and expertise to execute the strategy independently, with Newfangled providing the strategic foundation and quarterly check-ins to keep things on track.
Tier 2 — Momentum
$15,000/mo × 9 months = $135,000"Strategy and direction, month by month."
Everything in Foundation, plus: Monthly strategic advisory sessions (instead of quarterly). Content strategy and editorial planning — Newfangled develops the content calendar organized around the four messaging pillars, briefs each piece, and reviews output. Email strategy and list growth planning. Ongoing AEO/GEO monitoring and optimization guidance.
What MMGY owns: Content production and writing, social media execution, LinkedIn paid media management, email deployment (via existing tools), conference capture, and video/podcast production.
Recommended initial paid budget: $5,000/month for LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads and targeted paid amplification.
Best for: An MMGY team that wants strategic direction on an ongoing basis — what to produce, when, and how to connect it to the positioning narrative — but has the internal team to execute.
Tier 3 — Acceleration
$18,000/mo × 9 months = $162,000"We're in the work alongside you."
Everything in Momentum, plus: Content production — Newfangled writes or co-writes key content pieces (blog articles, case studies, thought leadership) aligned to the messaging pillars. LinkedIn paid media strategy — Newfangled develops campaign strategy, audience targeting, and creative direction; manages Thought Leader Ad campaigns. Conference-to-content framework — Newfangled designs the system for capturing and redistributing conference content across channels. GEO monitoring dashboard and monthly optimization.
What MMGY owns: Social media day-to-day posting, email deployment, conference logistics and on-site capture execution, video/podcast production.
Recommended initial paid budget: $5,000/month for LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads and targeted paid amplification.
Best for: An MMGY team that wants Newfangled actively producing strategic content and managing the paid amplification strategy — not just advising on it.
Tier 4 — Full Partnership
$22,000/mo × 9 months = $198,000"We're embedded as a strategic partner."
Everything in Acceleration, plus: Podcast/videocast strategy and launch — Newfangled develops the format, guest strategy, production workflow, and distribution plan. Quarterly CMO roundtable program — Newfangled designs, coordinates, and helps facilitate the roundtable series.
What MMGY owns: Social media day-to-day posting, conference logistics and on-site execution.
Recommended initial paid budget: $5,000/month for LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads and targeted paid amplification.
Budget note: At $198,000 for the retainer, this tier sits just under the $200,000 budget ceiling. We include it as the full expression of the recommended strategy.
Best for: An MMGY team that wants Newfangled functioning as an embedded marketing operations partner — owning execution across content, events, and new channel launches alongside strategic direction.
All tiers are structured as 9-month engagements. The positioning workshop and messaging framework are front-loaded in months 1-2. Website design and development runs months 2-4. AEO/GEO implementation is phased across the full engagement. Ongoing advisory and production activities begin once the strategic foundation is established and continue through month 9.
